January 20, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Protective service occupations have highest union membership rate

Among occupational groups, protective service had the highest union membership rate in 1999, at 38.2 percent.

[Chart data—TXT]

The unionization rate for protective service occupations—which include police officers, prison guards, and firefighters—was well above the average of 13.9 percent for all occupations. Other occupational groups with higher-than-average unionization rates were precision production, craft, and repair workers (22.4 percent); operators, fabricators, and laborers (20.7 percent); and professional specialty (19.7 percent).

At 4.1 percent, the lowest union membership rate was in sales occupations. The unionization rates were also under 10 percent in executive, administrative, and managerial jobs and in service occupations other than protective service.

These 1999 data on union membership are from the Current Population Survey. Unionization data are for wage and salary workers. Find out more in "Union Members in 1999," news release USDL 00-16.